Before 21,273 at the Bell Centre yesterday, for the first time since playing in six straight in November when Tim Thomas was shelved because of a hand injury, Rask made his third consecutive start. By backstopping the Bruins to a 3-0 victory, Rask halted the team’s 10-game winless streak and proved that he’ll be back between the pipes tomorrow against Buffalo.
“We’ve been looking at the way he’s played, and technically, he’s been pretty sound,’’ said coach Claude Julien. “Even those last two games, he got us a point. The reason we didn’t get two points is because we didn’t do our job offensively. He’s been good.
“Right now, we’re at a stage where you’ve got to go with the goalie that’s playing the best. I think right now, he’s playing the best. We know what Tim [Thomas] can do. Tim will be there at some point. There’s no doubt. But right now, I think Tuukka’s done a pretty good job.’’
At the other end, the Bruins solved Jaroslav Halak, who had stopped 45 of 47 Boston shots three days earlier at TD Garden. Adam McQuaid provided the winning strike at 17:32 of the first period when he netted his first NHL goal. After Marc Savard sent the puck out to the point, McQuaid let loose a slapper that ticked off the stick of Canadiens forward Ryan White and into the net.
“I walked to the middle and there was no shooting lane, so I tried to shoot for a tip,’’ McQuaid said. “Luckily it went off one of their players and in. I’ll take it.’’
Marco Sturm made it 2-0 when he scored with 3.2 ticks remaining in the first. Halak had stopped a Zdeno Chara attempt, but Sturm, freed in the high slot when Andrei Markov released to throw a hit on Mark Recchi in the low slot, buried the rebound. At 9:49 of the third, Sturm tacked on another when his wrister deflected off Canadiens defenseman Josh Gorges and into the net, putting to bed any fear that the Bruins would blow yet another two-goal cushion.
